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4Jul

By AfricaBusiness.comNo Comments

Energy Trends in Africa: Will Africa be the Global Green Energy Leader?

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, July 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- With the latest supply of power grids, power generation efficiency and movement toward energy-efficient buildings, Africa is at the brink of a green energy revolution – or is it really? The Frost & Sullivan Energy and Power Systems business unit will be hosting a complimentary web conference that will be contextualising the direction and scale of energy investment in Africa. The web conference will take place on 10 July 2012, at 15:00 CAT (14:00 BST). Various countries have introduced feed-in tariffs and, in addition, the need for supplementary power in remote locations is on the increase. At the same time, the costs of RE technologies have been decreasing, becoming ever more competitive. Many companies are bracing themselves for gr...

4Jul

By AfricaBusiness.comNo Comments

African News, Ghana News, Kenya News, South Africa News, Zimbabwe News

Africa provides vast potential for micro-insurance

Micro-insurance coverage has expanded dramatically globally from the 78 million low-income people identified in 2007 to the current estimates suggesting the sector is approaching 500 million lives covered today. This growth has been largely driven by both the active involvement of governments to better help citizens protect themselves against risks and the availability of payment systems, which has made it easier to collect premiums from low-income households and enabled a host of new players to get involved in micro-insurance. However, despite global growth in micro-insurance and its increasing prominence on the international agenda, micro-insurance on the African continent continues to lag behind, with only 25 million low-income people covered. Africa nevertheless provides vast potenti...

1Jul

By AfricaBusiness.comNo Comments

African News

Can Africa Industrialise?

by John Page Abstract Africa needs structural change to sustain growth. Industry with and without smoke stacks is key, but Africa has deindustrialised since the 1970s. Can Africa industrialise? Rising costs and domestic demand in Asia offer an opportunity. However, trade in tasks, firm capabilities and agglomeration will drive industrial location choices. Strategies to deal with these drivers of change are needed. Investment climate reforms should focus less on regulation and more on the gaps in infrastructure and skills. Policies to push exports, build firm capabilities and support agglomerations are also needed. Success will depend crucially on new donor attitudes and how policy is implemented. Please read here: http://jae.oxfordjournals.org/content/21/suppl_2/ii86.short

1Jul

By AfricaBusiness.comNo Comments

African News

Evaluating enterprise policy interventions in Africa: a critical review of Ghanaian small business support services

Obeng, Bernard and Blundel, Richard (2012). Evaluating enterprise policy interventions in Africa: a critical review of Ghanaian small business support services. Journal of Small Business Management (in press). Abstract Enterprise policies play a central role in economic development across Africa, but more effective, evidence-based policy evaluation is required to inform future interventions. The paper aims to: (i) contribute to filling this gap; (ii) develop more rigorous and appropriate evaluation methodologies. It examines the issues through an empirical study into non-use of small business support services in Ghana. Survey evidence from 253 owner-managers was complemented by interviews with owner-managers and service providers. It concludes that policy evaluation in Sub-Saharan Africa...

27Jun

By AfricaBusiness.comNo Comments

African News

Only 0.27% of the world’s top 1 million sites are hosted in Africa

Africa, with its over 1 billion people, has reached a 13.5% Internet penetration rate, and there are plenty of big websites about the continent. But where are those sites hosted? It would be safe to assume that there are big sites about Africa hosted outside the continent, but what would be the top 100 sites actually hosted in Africa? That’s the question we set out to answer in our latest study. Read on to find out what we discovered. 34 countries in Africa host sites in top 1 M When it comes to webhosting, arguably the US is the go-to place. The different reasons for selecting a particular hosting provider are many, including price, functionality, reliability, and, of course, geographic location. For example, it might be awkward for a local city council somewhere to host its website outs...

26Jun

By AfricaBusiness.comNo Comments

African News

The Africa Insurance & Reinsurance Conference Presentations: Fighting Insurance Fraud In Africa & What insurers can do to avoid leaving money on the table Subrogation and dispute resolution (Acrobat Reader)

The 2nd Annual Africa Insurance & Reinsurance Conference kick started today with a compelling opening speech on Charting new structures to ensure a stable and thriving regional insurance market by Ibrahim Kaddunabbi Lubega, The CEO, Insurance Regulatory Authority of Uganda. Photo number from left to right the moderator - Sam Ncheeri, MD, Eagle Africa Insurance Brokers and by Ibrahim Kaddunabbi Lubega, The CEO, Insurance Regulatory Authority of Uganda. Photo number Brian Kapito, Projects Manager, NICO Holdings Limited Malawi, David Ronoh, Managing Director, CIC Life Assurance. The two gave insights into the regional insurance market . AIRC 2012 again proved that it is the event of choice for regional insurance players as more that 70 delegates attended the first day. The conf...

23Jun

By AfricaBusiness.comNo Comments

African News, Energy, Green Energy, South Africa News

Clean Power Africa in Cape Town to focus on new opportunities in hydro and solar industries

South African Energy Minister Dipuo Peters to welcome delegates The Clean Power Africa conference and exhibition in Cape Town in September will focus on new opportunities in the clean energy sectors such as retrofitting hydropower to current dams and helping the mining industry to use excess water to provide onsite power. South Africa’s Energy Minister Elizabeth Dipuo Peters will welcome delegates at the official networking reception at the event which will boast over 600 visitors from across the globe. Clean Power Africa incorporates the fifth edition of the hugely successful Hydropower Africa 2012 conference and exhibition and the second year of Solar Energy Africa. New opportunities Says the Clean Power Africa conference director Nicolaas Loretz: “we have found that most utilities, muni...

11Jun

By The African Press OrganizationNo Comments

Energy, Green Energy

IFC and Norway’s Scatec Solar to Develop Solar Power in West and Central Africa

WASHINGTON, June 11, 2012/African Press Organization (APO)/ — IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and Scatec Solar, a Norwegian company specializing in photovoltaic solar systems, have signed an agreement to develop solar power projects that will supply renewable energy to address electricity needs in parts of West and Central Africa. IFC InfraVentures, the Global Infrastructure Project Development Fund, and Scatec Solar will develop, design, finance, construct and operate solar photovoltaic plants generating at least 10 megawatts of power. They plan to build a portfolio of projects in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Niger, and Togo. This is the first time a multilateral financial institution is partnering with a private company to develop solar power energy in Sub-Saharan Africa. The ag...